Foot Progress

It has now been two weeks since my bunion surgery.  I had my second check up/bandage change yesterday and they removed the stitches (ouch!).  The swelling in my toes continues to decrease but will probably not disappear entirely for another few weeks at least.  I have been able to walk on my heel pretty well for the last week, so am using the crutches less.  I was even able to clean some of the horses' pen last week!  I have yet to figure out a great method of keeping my shoe clean and dry when I am outside.  It seems like someone would have come up with a product for that in the US but I can only find them in Hong Kong (10-20 days shipping!).  I am trying hard not to over-do it and can only walk for about and hour or so a day.  I still spend a lot of time watching TV and working on crafts.  Below are a bunch of photos of the progress (sorry, some are a little gruesome), including x-rays where you can see the pin they put in the bone.


My foot before the surgery.
















One week after surgery (that is permanent marker, not what the stitches look like!).

















Two weeks after surgery and the stitches are gone.






















Newly bandaged.  It will stay bandaged like this for another two weeks.





















The before x-ray.






















The after x-ray.  The pin is right where they broke the bone in order to straighten it.






















My company while watching the olympics.


















Using a motorized cart while shopping on my first day out of the house.


















Delicious cookies that Jane sent us, thanks!  (chocolate always speeds up recovery!)


















Here are a couple of the projects I have been working on.

Foot Surgery

As everyone probably knows by now, I had bunion surgery last Friday.  Everything went fine and they actually only had to break the foot in one place.  I will be off my left foot for at least 8 weeks and will probably be off work for at least 3 weeks.  Matthew has taken on feeding the horses (which he seems to be doing a great job at!) and all of the other things around the house that require 2 working feet.  I have so far enjoyed many naps and a lot of olympics.  We bought a new TV and a new laptop computer for me to give me something to do for a while.  I am already feeling a little bit of cabin fever but will be able to do a little more once I am off most of the drugs.  I have my first check up on the foot tomorrow and will get an update as to when I can drive.  We got a handicap sticker for the car and I have been practicing with the crutches, but these 8 weeks can't go by fast enough!


















My coworkers sent me some beautiful get-well flowers!

Friends & Fun

Matthew and I finally have internet, I have a new computer, and I finally have some down time to post our long lost photos!

A few weeks ago we went out on a boat with some friends.  We hung out on a desserted island, swam in the rivers, and turned a delicate shade of burnt!

Self-portrait:

















Some pelicans flying over the island, Wassaw.

















The new "aqua girls"  practicing their water polo skills.

















We also had some more company earlier this month and I wanted to finish one of the guest bedrooms.  I managed to paint the room but not finish much else.  We also cleared out the other guest room so it no longer looks like a storage unit.

Before:
















After:
















My college friends Sam and Dani came for a long weekend visit.  We went horseback riding, went to a roller derby competition, played board games, hung out downtown, feasted at Mrs. Wilke's, swam at the beach, and virtually shot animals at a local archery place.  We had a blast!

A little work, but mostly fun

Our work level around the house has definitely slowed down over the past few weeks.  Now that the horses have shelter and most of the house is put together, we have been able to relax and get back to some of our normal activities.  Two weekends ago we started the rabbit shed but the heat and a surprise visit from my best friend and later my aunt and cousins has kept us from making a lot of progress.  Last weekend we finished putting away most of the boxes in our second guest room, set up that bed, and finally shampooed our living room carpet.


The day lillies from Jane seem to love their new home.


















The posts for the rabbit shed are set and cemented in.  This shed should go much faster than the horse shed because it is smaller and will have a simple roof.


















Matthew and I went to Charleston for a quick visit with Julie while she was there with the army.


















Eventually we will replace the carpet in the living room and bedrooms, but until then we used our Kirby to bring back a little life to the carpet.

Guest Bath and More

Matthew and I recently finished a couple of our big projects and have had a little more time to relax.  It was my goal to have the guest bath finished before Cecilia & family came last week.  We did manage to finish it, but just barely (9:30 pm the night before!).  Here are some photos of the process.  I did not take any photos of their visit, so you'll have to check Cecilia's blog for those.


This is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in:





















The hardest part was patching the walls after removing the rest of the wallpaper.  It took gallons of mud and hours to sand them smooth!





















I decided to try a texture technique that my mom and I had used a few times to paint the walls.  It is called The Wooly and uses a piece of sheep's wool to blend different paint colors together.  The colors I chose ended up being pretty subtle, but I really like it.  It also helped to disguise the parts of the wall that aren't too smooth.
















More of our wedding gifts finally made an appearance in this room, including the shower curtain, trash can, and all of the towels.













































Last weekend Matthew and I were able to finish the horse stalls and pasture (at least for now).  The horses have about twice the pasture space as well as a lot more shade and two stalls for when it rains.  Of course, it hasn't rained since the day after we put the shed roof on and there is no rain in the forecast!  We still need to build real gates for the stalls and finish off the grooming area, as well as clear a lot more land for pasture.



Rabi & Mow enjoying dinner in their new stalls.

















After more tree-cutting and clearing, we used some round pen panels to create the new pasture and took out a section of chain link in order to connect them.  We still have to dig out the chain link posts, which are all cemented in, but we're saving that for another day.

Raising the Roof!

Last weekend we finished the main structure of our horse shed!  Unfortunately, it rained most of Sunday so we were not able to finish the horse stalls or fencing and the horses had to stay out in the rain.  The rabbits, however, are now cozy and dry.  We hope to have the horses moved in by next weekend.  Matthew and I are very proud of our first big project and the fact that we stayed happily married throughout construction :)

During the week we finished installing the rafters.

And put up the purlins.  (usually I am the photographer, but I had to have at least one photo to prove that I helped and know how to use power tools!)

The roof metal was delivered on Friday.  The small pile was sort of disappointing compared to the huge pile of wood and concrete.

Attaching the roof went very smoothly and we finished early Saturday.

The finished main structure.  The first "bay" will eventually be my grooming area for the horses and the middle and last "bay" will be a stall for each horse.

We moved the rabbits into the first bay until we build their shed on the other side of the barn.  In the background you can see that we started putting up some of the wood for the stalls.

Recent House Work

We are still spending most of our free time working on the horse shed.  This past weekend we were able to put up all eight beams and finish 2/3rds of the rafters.  I also dug and set the two posts for the stall gates.  We had hoped to finish all of the roofing structure but made a slight miss-calculation and thus must re-do 1/3rd of the rafters (ugh!).  The metal roof has been ordered and we are hoping to start putting it up next weekend.

Matthew put large bolts through the rafters to attach them to the posts (after trimming and notching each post).

















While waiting to help Matthew, I finished some of the landscaping around the barn.  These railroad ties were left at the house and make a nice rustic flower bed.  I planted 3 eggplants in addition to the flowers since I do not have a veggie garden yet.

















Most of our progress last weekend on the barn.  We still have to do the middle section of rafters and put up some small boards before we can place the roof.


















We blame our rafter mess-ups on the fact that our supervisor spent most of the weekend asleep under the azaleas!


















Here is one of our lawn mowers in action.  He has done a great job keeping the grass in check and can even edge (and fertilize!) as he goes.  We haven't had to start up a gas lawn mower yet.

















Last weekend we also bought a new desk for my computer.  I knew it would be some assembly required, but didn't know it would take us two hours to put together!  (notice that we have two indoor supervisors as well in the lower left corner of the photo).